S6E7 - The Hike Back, Part 2 (Winter Wren)

[00:00:03] Is a tiny yet loud brown bird that can be found during its summer breeding season in the northeastern part of North America. And in the winter they are found throughout the eastern US and some parts of southern Ontario.

[00:00:49] Their songs are a loud and bubbly cascade of bright and cheery sounding musical phrases, lasting anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds on average and sometimes even longer.

[00:01:01] The species has a couple very similar sounding cousins around the world, namely the Pacific Wren in the west of North America and the Eurasian Wren in other parts of the world. My name is Rob and this is Songbirding.

[00:01:56] It's a very rapid sounding black-thru-to-green warbler in a bit of a hurry. Some winter Wren was up ahead. You'll get a better listen at this winter Wren this time on the way back. It could be the benefit of when you're not doing a loop trail.

[00:03:08] You get a chance to see and hear again some of the same birds. Perhaps they might be in a better position. Or you might find something new you missed before or just wasn't there before. Oh yeah, this winter Wren is really close to the trail.

[00:04:21] Song is of substantial length. For example that was about 5 seconds. I've heard them go as long as 10 seconds, rarely shorter than 4. And they are the tiniest songbirds. Not THE tiniest but they're pretty close. I believe they're smaller if not the same size as the chickadee.

[00:05:06] Kinglets are smaller than they are though. Now I have Magnolia Warbler near this winter Wren but I might have a hooded warbler as well. A couple of horseflies around me. There's also a couple dragonflies. We're presumably going to go after those horseflies.

[00:06:20] Is it Magnolia Warbler? I need to hear that one better. Yeah, pretty sure. It's both Magnolia and hooded warbler here. So it's got a meaty or quality to the song. It also helps knowing where I'm hearing these birds from.

[00:07:06] Magnolia is singing from fairly low and the hooded warbler is singing from very high. Which is actually typical for each in my experience at least. I don't tend to find hooded warblers low usually up in the canopy or at least halfway up.

[00:07:34] But Magnolia wouldn't really go any higher than halfway up the canopy from what I've experienced. It's always kind of at level with me or just above. Let's hear them both. I think how you can hear the hooded warbler song is a bit more substance to it.

[00:08:01] It's a thin, kind of more of a full bodied song. It's a distant morning dove.

[00:09:00] Let's walk up closer to this hooded warbler since it's on the way back. That's a big one, big song. That one's close or pointed at us. But definitely in the canopy. Hearing some seater wax wings are very high pitched. So you may or may not hear them.

[00:09:53] It's the first time I've been somewhere where we're both hooded and Magnolia occur in breeding territory together. I imagine long ago Southern Ontario was basically like this. Entirely, mostly, mostly forest. There were a few tall grass prairies and I'm sure there were some various wetlands.

[00:10:32] And there is at least one tract of badlands in one spot.

[00:11:14] He's a loud one. I spent much time in Norfolk County this year so I haven't encountered very many... All in the Halton Forest either. I haven't encountered very many hooded warblers this year. Just one time at Spooky Hollow this year.

[00:11:44] Alright, it's about time to find and retrieve my first recorder. I started this hike two and a half hours ago. And assuming there's some good stuff in it, I'll attach that to this recording. If there's some really good stuff, maybe I'll make a soundscape episode out of it.

[00:12:48] Alright, so I've got my recorder just about back of the parking area. I think once we get there, do a quick review of my e-bird check list. Let's see what we get. A Chestnut Side Warbler again. As we heard at the beginning.

[00:14:09] Alright, let's finish off the e-bird list. Just going to start scrolling through it morning to have... We definitely had one. This is in taxonomic order so it starts with ducks and geese and goes through things like hummingbirds and cuckoos and morning doves first.

[00:14:52] Then some shorebirds, which there were none. No gulls, cormorants. No vultures yet. Definitely at least two red-shouldered hawk, which I have on here. One red-bellied woodpecker. A couple downies, a couple of herries. About three northern flicker. Got a blue-headed virial. Lots of red-headed virials. I'm estimating about 14.

[00:15:34] About three blue-headed virials. And with 11 blue jays. At least six black cap chickadees. No swallows. No kinglet. There was one white breasted nut hatch. And a couple brown creepers that were hard to hear though. A couple winter rins. I'd say about five hermit thrushes and three wood thrush.

[00:16:14] Two robins. Four cedar wax wings. No finches. About three dark-eyed juncos. A couple towies, one of which we're hearing now. There's nut hatch again. About three oven birds. Two hooded warblers. Oh, I'd say four magnolia warblers. Two black-burny and... At least two black-throated blues.

[00:16:55] At least six black-throated green warblers. And that is that. Thirty species. Heard or seen. And just as I say that, flying over is a northern roughwing swallow. Which I just heard the bleating call of.

[00:18:09] I've got another black-throated blue on the road here. We're in Parked. See if we can hear that wall from the road. Maybe they'll come this way. Actually, I think what I'll do... I'm here and there's lots of roads. I may...

[00:18:39] start driving this road and just stopping at random spots. And let's see what we hear. You can listen to my extended soundscape recordings from Hector Falls on the Songscapes podcast. Look for the episode titled A July Morning at Hector Falls.

[00:19:12] Songscapes is also a free podcast where I occasionally post long-form nature recordings with no guidance or narrations. Songbirding, the Allegheny National Forest, is a songbirding studios production and was recorded, engineered, narrated, and created by me, Rob Porter. With cover art and logo design by Lauren Hilton

[00:19:34] and Creative Commons Music from Josh Woodward.

[00:24:26] Songbirding, the Allegheny National Forest is a free podcast that's available to all of you who are watching. You can listen to it on your own and enjoy the music. I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time. Songbirding, the Allegheny National Forest

[00:27:40] is a free podcast that's available to all of you who are watching. I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time. Songbirding, the Allegheny National Forest is a free podcast that's available to all of you who are watching. See you next time.